Training Wheels
by Batsojopo
Summary: Felix Gaeta is moving on but things are hard. And different. He needs the help of training wheels. This is the sequel to In Lord Iblis's Secret Service and co written with Rap541.
1. Part 1

**Training Wheels**

Part: 1  
Rating: PG, maybe be PG-13 later on  
paring: ensemble cast

Summary: Felix Gaeta is moving on but things are hard. And different. He needs the help of training wheels. This is the sequel to In Lord Iblis's Secret Service.

Disclaimer: Battlestar Galactica and its characters are creations of Glen Larson and copywrited by Universal Studios. Stargate and its characters are creations of MGM. We make no money off this.

**Part One**

"What are you reading?"

Felix jumped at the sound and pushed away from his desk. Doors weren't as noisy as hatches and he… had begun to relax a to at least. He didn't lock the door to his quarters. The people in Stargate Command weren't likely to steal or sneak in to attack him and his living quarters weren't on the beaten path. In fact, he was fairly certain his room had been a storeroom before.

It was still bigger than his old rack on the Galactica. And unlike the cell in Iblis's fortress, he could open and close the door. Walk down to the cafeteria for food, or to the locker room if he wanted a shower. It still felt odd, to be able to walk around.

Dr. Janet Fraser stepped into the small room. "I didn't mean to startle you." She gestured to his desk. "I just saw you reading. I wanted to see how you were feeling." She smiled. "I haven't seen you in a week. I was worried."

A joke. He had spent his first three weeks in the small sick bay and had periodically been forced back due to illness or allergies since. "I've been all right… I was reading a book… The Shining…." He didn't really understand it, it was confusing and it seemed to based on Earth beliefs that didn't make a lot of sense, but the language was interesting.

She looked around the small space. He had gotten a few things, Jonas had helped, and it did look better. He had new sheets and a blue quilted blanket called a comforter according to all the advertising. The truth was that Jonas had encouraged him to buy a lot of things. New towels, despite having perfectly serviceable issued towels from the U.S. Air Force, several civilian outfits, new shoes he didn't even need, some wall hangings he didn't really understand but had intrigued him, and books to fill the empty places on his shelves. Dr. Frasier looked at the wall hangings, a smile on her face. " You like Salvadore Dali and Van Gogh?"

"Who?" He felt dumb. The truth was that he usually felt dumb when the people in Stargate Command talked about things other than technical issues with computers and physics. They had a completely different way of living and never really seemed to notice it.

" The artists… who painted these pictures. I had these prints when I was in college." She blinked, as if suddenly realizing something. "These pictures… they are prints of famous paintings. 'Starry Night Over The Rhone" is pretty famous and so is 'A Persistance of Memory'." She looked at him. "Why did you pick them?"

He pointed to the picture of the melting clocks. " This is interesting to look at. It almost makes me tired to look at it, but its…. Intriguing. I don't…. I don't know much about art to be honest. I took a class in high school." She merely waited so he pointed to the other picture. " This…. Is pretty. It looks like the city at night in the old days… Where I used to live." He had already gotten the impression that talking about a planet other than Earth was bad. It made sense, of course. Earth was nice, but in a lot of ways it was pretty primitive and the average Tau'ri would react badly to learning he wasn't from Earth. Dr. Frasier knew where he was from of course, and so did the average member of Stargate Command but he was trying to be careful.

"You know what you like, then," Dr. Frasier said easily. She looked around. "Have you thought about what you're going to do? You really can't stay here in Stargate Command forever, you know."

"General Hammond is arranging some credentials so that I look like a legal resident, and not… an illegal alien." That was apparently wasn't hard, but it took time to insert his identity and to build a legitimate history. He saw where Dr. Frasier was going, though. "I know I can't live in this room forever, I just…" He felt stupid saying it but, "I never had a place that wasn't my adoptive parents house, the children home, or a room on campus or base." He gestured around the small windowless room. "This is more room than I've had since…. A long time. And living on base, I never had bills…" He had looked at some of the apartment ads, mostly at Jonas's urging and things were much different on Earth. He hadn't even understood what 'utilities included' meant until Jonas had explained. And he didn't have a car, and he didn't want to ask for a car considering that everything including the clothes on his back had already been given to him. At the same time, NORAD was hardly walking distance from the local towns where a lot of the personnel lived. He was certain that there was a lot more he was missing. It was weird, because he had never really thought about how things had been taken care for him for so long. He didn't even know how to boil water, let alone make himself a meal. And soon he would need to live alone, in housing away from Stargate Command. It made him feel stupid, because everything was good for him and all he could do was worry.

"I had wondered if it was a little overwhelming. Do you have plans today?" Frasier smiled. "I thought I'd take you out for lunch and maybe show you a place. That way you have someone around to ask your questions and its not awkward. And you can meet my daughter. Come on it'll be fun." She eyed him. "You could use more fresh air."

He knew when he was beaten.

~*~

"It's ok to call me Janet," she said as the waitress took away the dishes. "And you need to work on the sirs. Women, even officers, are never called sir. Right Cassie?"

"That's right," the young girl said brightly. " Men are 'sir' and women are 'ma'am' and if someone is older than you, you should open the door for them. Right Mom?"

"Right." Janet found Felix almost childlike outside the walls of SGC and that made her glad that she had insisted on her plan. He was institutionalized, that was one of his biggest problems and she was surprised, and somewhat pleased, that he was willing to acknowledge it. She wasn't a psychiatrist, but she had talked to Felix's therapist and the man was concerned that unless pushed, Felix could easily end up in an institution. Felix had fit in well with the researchers at SGC and had already helped them make some important discoveries. Sam was very impressed with his mathematical knowledge, but Janet suspected that it was almost too easy for Felix. He was being handed a new uniform and was almost playing a role. And she suspected that it was a very easy role for him and that was why she wanted to make sure that the needs of Stargate Command didn't lead to him being completely unable to function outside of a military base. "So did you like your lunch?"

Felix nodded. "I don't see why they call this barbeque…. It's more like stir fried food."

Cassie liked Mongolian barbeque and Janet had thought the local restaurant would be a good place to see how Felix handled a lot of choices. Jonas had advised her that Felix had been unsettled and nervous at the small shopping mall but hadn't had any serious issues. He had been a little hesitant in the restaurant about picking what he wanted from the grill's many choices of vegetables and meats, but to a point she suspected he just didn't know what some things were. He readily accepted Cassie's advise and had asked if certain things were good or not. Cassie seemed to like him, which was definitely a plus considering what she had planned.

"This is one of Cassie's favorites," she said. "I'm glad you like it." And the Saturday lunch crowd was usually light, so it was a little easier. Felix seemed fine though. Nervous, but she had a feeling that his natural setting was going to be nervous for some time. He didn't seem unusually nervous and he had even been smiling as Cassie talked about the goings on at her school. "I know a place, a private home, where the owner is renting a basement apartment. It's really nice and the owner agreed to let me show you the place. It's close enough to the base that you can commute by car in five minutes."

"But I don't have a car," Felix said after a moment. "They don't look hard to learn, they seem pretty similar to what we used, but I'm not even sure how much money I make. Cars seem expensive."

"Once your identity here in the United States is firmly established, it won't be too hard for you to get a car. I think you're going to end up as a first lieutenant or a captain and that is a pretty reasonable paycheck." And Sam was already talking about how some of the innovations that Felix considered standard technology were revolutionary. Felix didn't know it but his identity was being established very carefully so that he could be set up with some good credentials. It would help when it came time to patent things. The Air Force would get a cut, a sizable cut, but she suspected that Felix would not be concerned about money for long. Still, she liked that he was concerned about it. It meant that he was thinking beyond his past, and was thinking about what the future was going to be like. She stood up. "Now come on. Let's at least check it out."

She thought her plan was a good one. Felix's therapist had agreed. He needed to learn how to live normally without feeling a huge amount of pressure. It wouldn't be a long term solution but it would given him the time he needed to figure out how to pass himself off as American. Or Canadian.

"It's bright out," he said, wincing slightly, as they stepped out into the early afternoon sun. He donned the stylish pair of sunglasses that she knew Jonas had encouraged him to buy. A handsome fellow, she thought with no small amount of amusement as she led him to her car.

"You're probably going to be light sensitive for a while," she said as they got into the car. "You're lucky that you're not fair, because I can't imagine what would happen to me if I had been out of direct sunlight for so long, but you can still burn and you need to be careful."

"I know," he said as he got into the car. It was hard to tell if he was annoyed or just frustrated. He was a hard read in a lot of ways. It was obvious that somewhere along the line he had been taught that showing fear or pain was wrong.

"You'll acclimate. I think eventually even a lot of your allergy issues are going to fade." It did worry her. Felix was worse than Daniel in a lot of ways. She suspected it was that a combination of how he had spent so long in almost complete isolation, the fact that he was a unique blood type, and the simple fact that Earth was loaded with different allergens. He was lucky to escape food allergies but once she had realized there was a problem, she had make sure to have him tested for all the common and most of the uncommon food allergens. That didn't help with the ragweed and pollen issues, and she suspected that respiratory infections were going to be a long term problem, but there were worse things.

The drive was fairly short although it went through a much less settled area. Lots of mountain views and farmland and she could see Felix was trying to not be upset. Still, it was clear he was turning an off grey color for a reason. "Try taking a deep breaths and counting to five," she said after a moment. "You're inside the car."

Felix wasn't agoraphobic according to his therapist, just very unfamiliar, and unused to horizons and outdoor space. Coupled with all of the other sudden changes in his life, the outdoors could trigger panic attacks. It was one of the reasons she wanted him out of Stargate Command. It was too easy for him to hole up inside the mountain if he was never required to leave. He took a deep breath and held it for a moment. "I'm ok," he said, just a touch breathlessly.

"Good," she said as she turned on the car's cd player. Felix liked music, although he was hesitant to admit to liking anything, and she had made sure to have a classical cd in the car just in case. Vivaldi's Four Seasons began to chime in the car and she could see him begin to relax. "See? That's the place."

"There's a *whirlpool Jacuzzi*," Cassie said excitedly. "And there's a big yard." Cassie went about how nice the yard and stream and woods were. It was a little gratifying, all things considered. Cassie was being a big help, a better help than she had any right to expect from a twelve year old.

"Is the owner here?" Felix said hesitantly.

"Yes," Janet said brightly as she led him to the front door. "In fact you've met the owner already."

"Really? Someone from work then?" His look was quizzical.

"Yes, this is my house, Felix. I used to rent the basement out to medical students when I first moved here, and then Cassie came along so I didn't have time for renters and a child. But she's a little older, and you need a place. It might not be what you're looking for but I thought I would show it to you so you could at least get an idea of what is out there." She was fairly certain he would agree for no other reason than that it appeared easy and convenient. So she made sure to be honest. "I'm worried about you. I don't want you to keep living in the mountain because you're stuck here and you need to learn how to fit in. You won't learn that by staying in Stargate Command. At the same time, I don't think you can pass right now as an American military officer and I am against just sending you out to rent an apartment. You need to wet your feet in an environment where you can talk about where you're from, without worrying about it. I know you're not from Earth, and Cassie *isn't* from Earth so you would be helping her as well."

That was a bit of a fib in that Cassie had been young enough to adapt to a world that was much higher tech than her own, but she didn't see the need to spell that out to Felix. "And," she said forcefully, sensing the next potential issue, " it's not charity. You will pay rent and that rent pays the loan I took when I bought this too big house."

After a moment he shrugged sheepishly. " I think you're being too kind," he said easily, " but it would be rude for me not to look."

She had made sure that the basement apartment had a suitably blank look to it. It wasn't really an apartment at all, the house just had a large basement that the previous owner had finished. There was a large bedroom, a full bathroom and a big extra living room with a bar alcove. With four bedrooms on the ground floor, it was really a much bigger house than she needed, but she had gotten it in the divorce and there hadn't been any pressing need to move or downsize.

"Wow…. This is huge…" Felix said appreciatively as they walked down into the basement. He looked at the leather couch, and easy chair, and then at the small bar that her previous tenants had used as a kitchen. He grinned suddenly. "This room is bigger than the Admiral's quarters. Is there a bed? Like a pull out?"

Janet let herself smile as well. Felix really wasn't used to even a middle class lifestyle, which surprised her a little, and years of deprivation hadn't helped. He was fun to surprise with things that she hadn't even considered luxuries. "This is your living room. There's an actual bedroom down that little hallway. And your own bathroom."

He was so surprised, he let Cassie pull him into the bedroom to show him the queen sized bed. "You even get your own door out to the Jacuzzi!" Cassie said excitedly. "We have to use the stairs from the deck."

"It is like your own little private patio," Janet added. She knew, from his expression, that he was overwhelmed so she made sure to keep it light and not let him think too much about it. "Here's the downside. It's really not a separate apartment, you don't have a kitchen. So you'll eat with us upstairs in the kitchen or the dining room. The laundry is down here, so both Cassie and I will be down here occasionally. I don't have a second tv so if you want to watch tv, you come upstairs and watch the one up there." In other words, he would need to interact with people instead of eating by himself in a cafeteria and then reading by himself in an underground ex-storage closet.

"What about work? I still don't have a car." He looked at the bedroom wistfully.

"Until you get a license, General Hammond agreed that you can work the same schedule I do." Which meant less work all around since Hammond and Felix's psychiatrist agreed that the man needed to learn how to relax and function on a normal schedule. The ten years as a Goa'uld prisoner and subsequent rescue hadn't done much to Felix's work ethic. He worked until someone told him to stop and tended to treat every request as a crisis. "And like I said, this isn't charity. You will be used around the house for home improvement projects. You will carry things. You will cook dinner and when winter comes, you will shovel snow."

"Well…. I've never actually seen snow….." He looked at her shrewdly. "You… volunteered for this didn't you?"

"I suggested it actually." She took him by the hand. "I think you have spent an awfully long time devoting yourself to helping and protecting other people. It's all right to accept some help for yourself. It's not going to be easy to fit in here without some training wheels."

After a moment he nodded. "All right… but what are training wheels?"

TBC...


	2. Part 2

**Training Wheels**

Part: 2  
Rating: PG, maybe be PG-13 later on  
paring: ensemble cast

Summary: Felix Gaeta is moving on but things are hard. And different. He needs the help of training wheels. This is the sequel to In Lord Iblis's Secret Service.

Disclaimer: Battlestar Galactica and its characters are creations of Glen Larson and copywrited by Universal Studios. Stargate and its characters are creations of MGM. We make no money off this.

**Part Two**

"He panicked," Janet said easily. "I wasn't in any danger."

"That black eye tells me something different," Hammond said. "So how long did it take him to calm down?"

Janet waited until Dr. Reiver looked up from his notes. "About an hour, and that was without drugs. He went to sleep, and when he woke up this morning, he was pretty shaky and worried that I was mad and worried that he had scared Cassie and I." She looked at Reiver.

Reiver sighed. "I worried something like this would happen but sometimes you need to let a patient fall before they're ready to understand that they aren't ready to run a marathon. Felix is overcompensating and trying to be the normal, mentally healthy Air Force officer that you want. The problem is that he is just a little over seventy days from being released from a hellish nightmare. He's not ready, and he's pushing himself far too hard."

"He did just fine during the incident with those rogue Jaffa in SGC," Hammond said. "I hadn't expected him to do much more than duck and cover, and he led the charge. We could have lost people and he was as cool as any of my seasoned teams."

"And because he seems so well, there's a tendency for people to ask him to reschedule sessions with me, and there's also a tendency to just keep pushing him into what we consider normal life." Reiver tapped his notepad. "And in response, Felix downplays any anxiety or fear he might feel. Even if he hadn't had this horrific imprisonment, he is from a completely different society and all alone. I've talked to Felix a lot, and he feels an overwhelming gratitude to Stargate Command, and he wants to repay us for saving him, for trusting him. He feels a debt is owed. He has a great deal of difficulty putting himself and his needs ahead of a group, and he worries that people will be disappointed in him if he isn't fine. Add in the post traumatic stress, and when he finally reaches his breaking point, you end up with what happened last night. He needs more attention, and more coping skills."

Janet nodded. She was as much to blame as anyone else. She had left Felix alone in the house, to take Cassie to a school function. He had been fine up until then. The power had gone out during a thunderstorm and Felix had….just collapsed. She had found him curled in a ball, rocking himself, almost completely unresponsive at first and hysterical. "So what do we need to do?"

"Does he need to be hospitalized?" Hammond asked. He looked at Janet with concern. "You said he was out of it, disoriented and violent. I can't in good consciousness ignore that he hit you, Janet."

Fortunately Reiver was already shaking his head. "Hospitalizing Felix for anything other than an acute episode would be a disaster." He sighed. "He's well aware of the stigma of mental illness, and it's a much harsher stigma in his society. Frankly, while his society certainly is more technologically advanced, when it comes to mental illness, they're still in the leeches and evil spirits stage. He would decompensate rapidly. And no, even if that wasn't an issue, I don't think he would benefit from hospitalization. I don't believe he's dangerous to Janet or Cassie." Reiver set down his notebook. "The truth, George? He's got a monster case of post traumatic stress disorder, and from a hell of a lot reasons. He's trying to cope with that, and a huge amount of survivor guilt, and add in a completely new world to deal with… You need to go slower. My sessions with him have to be a priority. I'm going to work on coping skills with him, and he needs some support structure. And… I have an idea but the both of you would need to be on board with it. It's a little radical."

"How radical?" Hammond asked. He seemed to realize how harsh he sounded. "Look, I have to put the priorities of Stargate Command first, but I happen to like that young man. He deserves a chance, and I want him to have it. I just can't have him hopped up on reefer or whatever the latest therapy craze is."

Reiver smiled. "No… it's nothing like that.

~*~

"You need to eat, Felix."

"I'm not really very hungry," he said as he picked at the unfamiliar food. He had just taken the daily special without asking and he wasn't feeling adventurous. 'Enchilada' sounded vile and looked like glop and his stomach was rolling.

Janet put her hand over his and squeezed it gently. "I know you're worried but everything is going to be fine."

He shrugged and didn't say anything. He didn't know what to say. He felt like a complete jackass over what happened. The power had gone out in the house, and he had felt his nervousness increase and then the thunder and the lightening…. He had been fascinated at first, he hadn't seen a rainstorm since New Caprica but then it had overwhelmed him. Only *children* get frightened in storms, he told himself harshly. Janet had been incredibly kind to invite him into her home and he had repaid her by… getting hysterical and hitting her. He was fairly certain that he was going to be left at the hospital. The Tau'ri certainly made the insane asylums look nicer, and Dr. Reiver had made a point of showing him the facility in one of their sessions after he had talked about his fears in that regard, but it was still a crazy house. People weren't chained down, but they weren't free to leave either. And the Tau'ri weren't opposed to sedating people into submission.

"Well, it's almost time for your appointment, and you're not going to eat, are you?" Janet said after a moment. She smiled again as they stood up "I talked to Dr. Reiver… I think you'll like what he's going to suggest but you don't have to agree to it. And you're not going to be staying in the hospital. Everyone involved agreed that it wasn't necessary."

"Everyone?" He had to assume that meant General Hammond. Of course Janet had told Hammond and no doubt everyone knew he'd had a breakdown. He put his hands in his pockets to keep them from shaking.

~*~

Janet could see how upset he was. If nothing else, his episode the night before had served as a warning that she didn't think Felix was able or willing to give. He wasn't ready to really trust that things were better for him. He wasn't ready to trust his feelings with other people. She only had minimal training in psychiatry but she could see the underlying personality traits that made Felix not only a strong man, but a bundle of nerves once a crisis was passed. He was a worrier, and he was too insecure to see that he wasn't disappointing anyone. Far from it. She knew Hammond well enough to know exactly how impressed he had been with Felix Gaeta when the rogue Jaffa had infiltrated, pretending to be rebels. It had been Felix who had gathered and rallied the janitorial staff and stopped the Jaffa from taking over the facility. Felix didn't talk much about his family, but she knew he had been raised in what the people of the Twelve Colonies of Kobol called 'children homes', places where foundlings and orphans were raised by the state. He had told her that he had been lucky, that a family had taken him in when he was eleven as their own child but she had a feeling things hadn't been easy for him even as a child. It showed in how much he craved approval and in how he downplayed his accomplishments. Sam Carter had been more than impressed, she had been startled, not only by his grasp of physics and mathematics but by how he considered himself poorly educated in the fields. Janet and Sam both suspected that he simply had no idea what he was really capable of, because he had never been encouraged much beyond making sure that he didn't end up illiterate and destitute.

That was why she had wholeheartedly approved of Reiver's suggestions. Felix needed the break, he really did. "You don't have to worry. I think you'll like what Dr. Reiver has in mind."

"Ok," he said softly. He didn't sound happy at all but that didn't surprise her. She led him down the long hospital hallway. It was good that Reiver had been able to move quickly with his plan, she realized. Making Felix wait would have likely made things worse.

Reiver smiled as they stepped into his office. "Felix, Janet… please sit down." He waited until they did sit to continue. "Felix, I know you're upset so I want you to understand right away that no one thinks you need residential care. What happened last night was a setback, it was not a reason to think you can't manage. We do need to manage your schedule better and not put you under as much pressure and… I think we need to try something a little different." He stepped over to a room that Janet knew was his private bathroom. He came back, leading a very large white dog with a cinnamon mask and markings. It looked like a giant fox, really, and she hadn't expected the dog to be so large. It was squirming with anticipation. Reiver smiled and patted the dog on the head. "Felix, this is Neville. Neville is an eleven month old Akita and he's a trained service dog."

"Like for a blind person," Felix said after a moment. "But I can see." He eyed the dog and it looked at Reiver and then whined.

"Not all service dogs are for blind people. Neville here is trained to help people who have anxiety problems like yours." He led the dog closer to Felix. "Do you like dogs, Felix?"

"I never had a dog…" Janet wondered if the plan was going to fail right then. Felix looked afraid of the dog. Then he held out his hand to let the dog sniff him. "There was a dog in the fleet… he was always happy to see me." Neville sniffed his hand politely and then jumped on his lap and licked his face. "Hey! Hey…. Down, there…." And Felix began to pet the dog. Janet knew then that it would work.

"He seems to like you," Reiver said, "and you would be doing us a favor by taking him. We had him ready for another patient but that person ended up being too afraid of dogs to handle him. His job is to help you by supporting you and making sure that you're all right. If you decide to take him, then I will have his handler spend the afternoon showing you his commands and tricks. It is a commitment though. He can't help you if you leave him at home all of the time. As a service dog, he can go to work with you, and he should, and he can even go into restaurants and stores. His handler will explain all the rules. You'll also need to walk him, which from what I understand will work well with your physical therapy."

"And you have to take care of him," Janet added. Part of the therapy was for Felix to feel empowered and taking care of a pet would help.

"But… will General Hammond be all right with a dog at work?" Felix scratched the dog's ears as he asked, and his tone was surprisingly wistful. "I always wanted a dog…. But I moved around from family to family too much…"

"General Hammond thinks it's a wonderful idea," Reiver said. Janet nodded as well. She had been surprised at how well Hammond had accepted the idea but she also had a sneaking suspicion that Hammond had a soft spot for Felix. She smiled as Neville put his head on Felix's lap, clearly asking for more ear scratching. It was going to work.

~*~

"I have a list of things that I need to pick up for Neville," Felix said as they walked to the car. Janet made a point not to smile, but it was hard. Felix was a handsome man, much more dashing now that he had gained some weight and filled out. The man had been painfully thin when he had been brought to Stargate Command. Iblis had been more than a control freak, he had carefully designed Felix's meals to be nutritious and to keep him just healthy enough to stay alive. With more generous meals and the physical therapy she had been overseeing, he was still slight but quite good looking, and unlike a lot of men, he knew how to dress and present himself. He was quite dashing, in his sunglasses and heavy leather jacket, and the large cinnamon marked dog only added to that aura.

"Don't worry," she said cheerfully as she unlocked the car. "General Hammond thought of that. So we are stopping at Petsmart to get Neville his necessary things. Dr. Reiver said you had a good training session."

"We have to attend a class for the next few weeks." Felix said as he opened the back seat's door and gestured for Neville to get in. "It's on Saturday, in the morning. You sit," he said to the dog. Neville obliged, his tongue lolling out as though he had run several miles and was mightily tired. Felix still looked stressed out and worried. "I am so sorry about last night. You let me move in and it's been nothing but trouble for you…"

"You can stop that," Janet said, her voice warm but firm. "Felix, when you're too much trouble, I assure you, I will let you know. I think you have spent so much time worrying about other people, you never stop and worry about yourself, and you never give yourself a break. Dr. Reiver said something to me that really made me think. You've only been on Earth for two and half months, and you have only been living in a house and not a cell for eight days. If I had been in your shoes, I think I would probably be ranting and raving inside a padded room. You are handling it so well, it's almost scary, so stop beating yourself up. You are not trouble, and you are stressing yourself out for no reason."

Neville whined in accompaniment, and made a point of trying to nuzzle Felix until Felix reached back and gave him a few pats.

"I just…" Felix took a deep breath. "I hate the idea that I might… always be a basket case. I hated it when people had to help me with things….after the amputation… and I don't…. want to be fifty or sixty years old and be too stressed out to live alone or to drive safely." He gave the dog another friendly pat. "I like Neville…. But I can't shake the feeling that this is another crutch and that I'll need crutches forever."

"You have to let yourself have time to heal. You talk about your amputation, well… were you up on a prosthetic leg two days after it happened? Or did you need time to heal before you adjusted and started to adapt? It's not weak to need support when you're hurt, Felix, and frankly I think you're the kind of person who doesn't accept help unless you're completely miserable." She made a point of taking his hand and giving it a gentle squeeze. "Neville is not here to make you dependant, he's just here to help and I think you'll find that in a few months, he'll just be a pet and not something you need."

She could see he didn't quite believe her but she didn't expect him to simply start coping. Admitting his fear about recovery was a major step. A good step. "Now, let's get going. Do you have a list?"

Felix nodded. "Some things are marked optional." He pulled a list out of his pocket and then a plastic card. "General Hammond said I should use this and that I was supposed to buy whatever I needed. He also brought this for Neville's work harness." He held up a leather case that clearly could be clipped to the dog's harness. It was a photo id for NORAD, and Janet recognized the security features for Stargate Command. The best part was that it had Neville's photo, and his name and rank. "Sgt. Neville Gaeta of the United States Air Force…. That's adorable." She couldn't help it, she chuckled.

Hammond clearly had a soft spot for Felix and she could see that Felix appreciated it. He was blushing as much as someone of his coloring could.

"It's cute." he agreed. "Neville seems to like it."

"Well, we better make sure we have the house set so Neville feels welcome." She looked back at the dog who merely smiled at her as though it was simply his due to be well supplied.

~*~

"Are you sure it's ok?" he asked again as they approached the store's door.

Janet nodded. She suspected that Reiver had intentionally mentioned Petsmart just so it would be easy for Felix to be in public with a service dog. It helped that Felix wore dark glasses to protect his eyes and that Neville had a very standard service harness. People would assume he was blind and that, ironically, would make it a lot easier for him to go into stores and restaurants. "This place actually allows pets inside but because Neville is a service dog, he can go anywhere."

Felix nodded but she could see he was still nervous. Neville was tight against his legs and tugging him just a little to the door. The dog was a good idea, Janet thought again as she followed Felix into the pet supply store. She had tried to get Felix into stores, the post office, the grocery store, and he had been difficult to pry out of the car. He usually waited for her. She had gotten him into the post office once, and that had been about it. But he seemed grimly determined to make sure the new dog was well taken care of.

She made sure to grab a cart. The list was large and she intended to make sure that Felix splurged a little. "What's first on the list?"

"Food," Felix said easily. "We're not supposed to give him people food." Neville seemed to agree, as he gently pulled Felix to the food aisle. Felix consulted the list. "The trainer says that Neville likes Iams dry kibble in the morning and a can of wet food, and that we should have milk bones for treats and for rewards." Felix looked at the various stacks of dog food with something akin to horror.

And it was a situation where she could understand why he was overwhelmed. He had never owned a pet, and he had lived in a society where pets had been a rare luxury, so it was understandable that picking out pet treats was a little overwhelming. That the list recommended brands made it easier, a matter of finding the items on the list. Neville was on a big dog food mix, although he was eager to point his nose at little milk bones that Felix grabbed.

"We used these in the training," Felix said as he put two boxes of the biscuits in the cart. Those were followed by a large sack of dry food and two racks of canned food. Janet found herself more amused at how people stared at them. It was obvious that people thought Felix was a blind man and she considered that a positive. Service dogs were supposed to be welcome everywhere, but people often weren't understanding when the disability wasn't obvious. Because of the light sensitivity issue, Felix wasn't likely have a lot of problems with bringing Neville with him.

After a lengthy amount of time shopping, Neville was well stocked with food, dishes for work and home, brushes, a leash for walking, booties for Neville's feet when it was wet, and two beds, one for home and one for work, and it was time the optional things.

Namely toys. Felix was a bit overwhelmed already, not veering from his list except to insist on garishly yellow food dishes, for good luck he said, and the isle of toys seemed to stump him completely. "We… had a ball that we threw…."

Neville in contrast seemed excited and pulled Felix to the garish plastic squeaker toys. Showing no worry, Janet placed several of the extremely garish toys into the basket. "You know, Felix, the squeakier the toy the more they like to play with it." The look he gave her told her otherwise. He was starting to deteriorate and she knew if she didn't get him out of the store sooner rather than later he would have a very visible break down. That was something she didn't want him to go through.

Before she could do anything a low whine came from Neville. She looked down at the large dog for a moment and quickly realized that he was starting to pull Felix in the direction of the front doors. Neville was trying to get him out of the stressful environment Janet realized. "I think we've picked up everything we're going to need for now," she said as she squeezed his free arm. "Why don't you go on ahead, and I'll meet you outside once this is taken care of," she indicated the full basket.

"Okay," Felix said softly with obvious relief as he handed over the card and let Neville lead him out of the store.

As she stood watching the total grow exponentially at the checkout register Janet let out a sigh of relief that she managed to get Felix out of the store before things deteriorated any more than they were. She could tell he had tried really, really hard and she was grateful for it. But, at the same time, it seemed too soon for him to do any more shopping.

"He's blind, isn't he?" the girl asked as she reached over and scanned in the large back of dog food with a hand held scanner.

"What?" The question brought her back to the present.

"You're boyfriend. He's blind, isn't he? We normally get pets, but not a seeing-eye-dog."

"He's not exactly blind. He's just very light sensitive right now," Janet answered with a bit of a smile. The rest of the girl's comments were not what she was expecting.

"Good luck," the clerk answered as she handed her the receipt. "He's definitely a keeper," she continued under her breath.

"Thank you." Janet pushed the heavy cart out of the store and towards the car. She wasn't that surprised to find Felix standing beside the vehicle. He had yet to be given a set of keys for it. He still looked stressed, but not as much as he had been while in the store. "Now that you're out here all calmed down, you can put Neville's things in the trunk," she said as she opened it. As he dutifully put the bags in the car Janet stood back and watched him while mulling over the comments the cashier had made. _He's very nice_, she thought to herself. _I'm just a friend, that's all_, she told herself forcefully. But, and it surprised her, she suddenly wondered if there could be more.

_Finis_


End file.
